


The Gift

by ereshai



Series: Check, Please! 12 Days of Christmas 2016 [8]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Check Please 12 Days of Christmas, Day 9: The Magic of Christmas, Gen, Magical Realism, Metafiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 06:46:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8963848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ereshai/pseuds/ereshai
Summary: Merry Christmas John Johnson, metaphysical goalie.





	

He’s wherever he is when he’s not needed for a Story – not exactly nothingness, but it isn’t a place. It’s a state of being, he supposes. If he wants to, he can relive the Story – any of the Stories he’s been a part of actually. Some of his lives are better than others, and most of them are brief. He doesn’t get to be the main character very often.

This is also where the new Stories are revealed to him, unfolding in his mind as the authors put words on the page. It can be very confusing. Luckily he isn’t limited by a physical body and he can be in several Stories at once.

“Hello, John.” The voice is warm and kind, almost familiar.

That’s new. No other person – real or fictional – has ever joined him here. “Hello?”

“Time for another Story. A special one. There’s an author who would like to make amends for what she put you through in another Story.”

“Okay.” He’d ask for more details, but he’ll know them soon enough. But why is this person… voice… whoever here?

“I know how hard it can be, to be fictional and self-aware, to have different versions of yourself existing at the same time and somehow all of them are true.”

“Oh.”

“And so I give you this gift – a Story about a perfectly ordinary young man named John J. Johnson.”

“But-“ Nothing of the Story was coming to him. What was he supposed to do?

~*~

John got off the train and hefted his bag over his shoulder. He looked around the station; Holster had promised to pick him up and drive him to the Haus for Merry Hausmas Eve (Shitty always came up with the weirdest things. Christmas was still a week away.)

It would be good to see his friends again and catch up on what they were up to.  He’d been so busy establishing his career over the last couple of years, he’d lost touch with almost everyone. Luckily for him, Lardo has stubbornly refused to let him drift away and texted him randomly. And now he was finally back for a visit. It would be nice to see familiar faces and meet some new Samwell Men’s Hockey players.

His phone dinged.

Holster: _Yo, J3. I’m out front._

John smiled. It had been a long time since anyone had called him anything but John or Johnson.

Me: _Be right out._

On his way, he passed a man dressed as Santa Claus who was collecting for some local children’s charity. He dug out his wallet and dropped a couple of bills in the man’s donation jar.

“Why thank you, young man.” Santa’s voice was warm and kind. And maybe a little familiar? “Have a merry Christmas and may you enjoy the gifts of the season.”

“I’m sure I will, thank you.” John gave him a little wave in farewell and walked out of the station. It _was_ going to be a merry Christmas.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my way of apologizing to a fictional character (who is fictionally self-aware) for what I put him through in a Halloween fic I wrote.  
> No one ever said I had to make any sense.


End file.
